The Contaminated Land Resource Sharing Group (RsG) is an award-winning officer-led group comprising officers from Fife, Clackmannanshire and Perth & Kinross Councils that was set up in 2011. The group not only shares specialist equipment, officer-time and expertise but it does so with no money changing hands through the use of a simple barter agreement.
This has saved each of the participating local authorities up to 70% in costs whilst reducing the time taken to investigate potentially contaminated land. The economies of skills & scale achieved by the project have resulted from us working together to get the best value from limited resources whilst also reducing external consultancy costs.
The associated savings then allow for specialist environmental consultancies to be employed at a more advanced level in the contaminated land site investigation and risk assessment process (if required), thus making better use of our already limited resources.
The RsG is the first of its type in the UK and has been cited as an example of officer led best practice by the Chair of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives in Scotland (SoLACE).
Key Activities
- Project has allowed for Contaminated Land Intrusive Investigations to be undertaken in-house (reducing costs and improving staff skills/training)
- Peer review of Contaminated Land Site Investigation Reports to ensure consistency between the three local authorities
- Training & Knowledge Sharing (cost savings allow for staff training to be focused on key, specialist areas)
- Regular meetings held between group members (including Service/Senior Managers) to discuss the work programme, equipment needs & training procedures
Impact and Benefits
- Resource Sharing of specialist equipment and staff
- Best Value through reducing costs (given the current financial climate)
- Economies of Skills & Scale
- Team Resilience
- Staff Empowerment
- The RsG model allows its members to make use of the services of the group as much or as little as required
- Deliver a consistent approach to service delivery (all three local authorities use the same specialist automated software for the prioritisation and reporting of potentially contaminated land)
Learning
- Resource sharing can provide tangible benefits in particular in driving down external consultancy costs and increasing the in-house delivery of statutory functions
- Resource sharing can also facilitate staff training in a cost effective manner
- Project has allowed each of the three local authorities to investigate potentially contaminated land in a more efficient and effective manner
Further Information
Further information on the Contaminated Land Resource Sharing Group (RsG) can be found on the Knowledge Hub website: https://khub.net/web/thecontaminatedlandresourcesharinggroup
To find out more about this case study, please contact:
Kenny Bisset
Lead Officer
Fife Council
kenny.bisset@fife.gov.uk
03451 555 555 ext 44061